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- Space Empires: IV & V (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20)

- - Repairs (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=3337)

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Q:
Already now it's a good tactic not to destroy enemy ships but to cripple them. Or to gift/trade crippled ships. Your enemy will have to continue to pay maintenance for them and even for a human it's a pain to send a repair ship to the location of the damaged ship.
Yup it is......

The AI does not do it at all as far as I know.
Yes it can and did on me <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

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mottlee@gte.net
"Kill em all let God sort em out"

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>That maintenance fee is quite high, glad I don't have to spend 25% of the cost of my car each month to maintain it!
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm not sure that is a fair comparison since your car can't travel 6-12 sectors per month and doesn't mount shields and a wave motion gun. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

I seem to recall someone in a different thread explaining the maintenance cost as the total cost to operate the vessel for a month including personnel costs. If you were to assume that you needed four people to operate your car and included all four of their salaries as part of the yearly maintenance of the car, I think that cost would actually be much more than 25% of the cost of the car.

If I need 4 people to operate my car I sell the bugger http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif
I still think it is high, even taking pay into account, considering how advanced the techs are.

I have my doubts as to whether modern warships and aircraft have operational, maintenance, and personnel costs that run to 300% of the vehicle's cost every year. Granted a space craft would likely be more complex, but I think the relationships should be fairly close. But then again I suppose it depends on if you count only the crew and direct support personnel ie for a plane the flight crew, the plane captain, the maintenance crew etc. I suppose if you total up the indirect support costs it might be 25%, ie quartermasters, cooks, chaplains, JAG's, MPs for base security, construction engineers to maintain a base ad infiniti.

Don't frget to include fuel costs as well as replacement parts. And insurace for major repairs.

Somehow I have trouble imagining getting insurange on my Battleship! Heck I can barely afford my car insurance and I only had one fender bender http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

$5,000 a month on a $20,000 vehicle is quite steep, and I think the insurance company would go for it.

The problem with trying to equate the game's maintenance to RL is you have hundreds if not thousands of uses for money. In the game, there are only two basic uses for resources, building ships and facilities and maintenance. To get the same RL effect of your monthy car payment and insurance as well as the hundred other things you could spend money on it needs to be distorted to cause the same pause and consideration you make spending your money. The fact that so much is being written about it shows that it is working pretty well. If it mirrored RW costs there would be little concern over whether you build this or that and what it costs as we have nothing else to spend it on. With it as it is there is RL concerns over costs exhibited by the amount of space used discussing mothballing and other tactics to reduce or keep costs down.

I agree the costs have to be elevated for playability's sake. It just seems counter intuitive on the face of it. In my mind I just assumed that the costs came from all the indirect support and infrastructure it costs to keep a military running and fighting.

lol! Battlship insurance:

Galactic Insurance - Damage Claim Form.
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Title Mr/Mrs/Ms/Other(please state): Dictator
Surname: Starcrusher-Abomination Prime
First name(s): George Walter

Registration of damaged vehicle: 089-ATK-001
Make, model and colour of damaged vehicle: Generation IV Gazrad Skybastard Deluxe. Aquamarine.

Engine size: 5,000 tonnes.

Describe, in your words, how the damage was caused. Use diagrams where necessary:
I was on my way into enemy territory to obliterate 700 million alien scourge. I was travelling well within the speed limit. On warping into the Baksha system I was confronted with a Rage defence armada who decloaked without signalling and launched a volley of 90 nuclear missiles at my Battlecruiser.

State who, in your opinion, was at fault: The Rage Collective.

Describe the damage to your vehicle: Shield generators and armour plating boiled away into component atoms. Engines vaporised, crew quarters will be radioactive for approx 22,000 years. Windscreen cracked, nearside front headlight slightly damaged.

Describe any injuries sustained by yourself or your passengers:
127 crew members reduced to hairspray by intense radiation. (medical documentation enclosed)

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"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"Uh, I think so, Brain, but balancing a family and a career ... oooh, it's all too much for me. "